National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS) Participants
What is the National Home Health Aide Survey? How do I know the NHHAS is a real survey? Is my information kept confidential? What is involved in participating? Who can I contact if I have questions?
What is the National Home Health Aide Survey? The NHHAS, part of the National Home and Hospice Care Survey, will provide new information needed to recruit, retain, and expand the workforce who provides the direct care to home health and hospice patients. We will conduct this first national survey of home health aides as a telephone interview with a sample of workers who provide home health and hospice patients with assistance in activities of daily living (ADLs) (eating, transferring, toileting, dressing and bathing). The survey includes collecting information on whether workers plan to continue working in their present positions and what factors affect their decisions, including job satisfaction, nature of the work environment, training, advancement opportunities, benefits, working conditions, and personal or family demands. The survey will help identify home health aides’ priorities, ways to meet those priorities, and how to prevent staffing shortages in the future.
Why should I participate? We need to find out from home health aides about their work experiences and the challenges they face. This information will guide changes in policy and practice that can help attract new people to become home health aides. Without the voice of home health aides to help inform public policy and new programs, it is likely the shortage of home health aides will increase. Therefore, your participation in the National Home Health Aide Survey is important; without your involvement, home health aides like you will not be included in the national description of home health aides who work in U.S. home health and hospice agencies. Home health aides like you provide care to more than 2.2 million elderly and chronically ill people who receive care from approximately 10,000 home health and hospice agencies across the United States. We need to keep experienced, dedicated home health aides in the field and find new ways to attract more home health aides for the future. Some of the important goals of the NHHAS are to provide a better understanding of: What it is like to be a home health aide Ways to improve the home health aids job How to keep experienced people working in this important health care field Ways to encourage others to become home health aides Several national organizations support the NHHAS -- including the
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute Your participation makes the data more accurate. Your participation helps researchers, policy makers, and the home health and hospice industry understand the concerns of home health aides. Failure to participate in the survey lessens the accuracy of the information collected. How do I know that
the NHHAS is a real survey? You can call this toll-free number, 1-888-290-1125, for more information about the National Home Health Aide Survey.
Is my information kept confidential? All information collected in this survey will be kept private, including your name and the agency where you work. No information will be given to your supervisor or agency. And your job or certification will not be affected. We assign code numbers in place of names or other facts that could identify you. None of your answers will be reported in any way that identifies you personally. The survey results will only be released in summary tables and reports. No information collected in this survey may be used for any other purpose than the purpose for which it was collected. If any federal employee or contractor gives out confidential information not authorized by law, he or she can be fired and fined and/or imprisoned.
What is involved in participating? After you contact us, an interviewer will call you to conduct the telephone interview. A survey representative will also attempt to call you for the interview, should we not hear from you. The interview will be scheduled during nonworking hours, at a time that is convenient for you. The
interview will take about 40 minutes and will include questions about your: Examples of questions: How did you learn about being a home health aide as a possible job? If you had to decide whether to become a home health aide again, would you? Is caring for others a reason why you continue to work in your current job? Would you prefer to work more or fewer hours on this job, or is the amount of hours you work about right? Does your current employer offer you paid sick leave? After completing the interview, you will receive $30 in appreciation for participating in this important survey.
Who can I contact if I have additional questions?
This page last reviewed
October 15, 2008
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